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Captain Phil Harris to be seen in next 'Deadliest Catch' season

Though it's still unclear how "Deadliest Catch" will handle the recent death of Phil Harris, the fan-favorite captain will be seen again on TV when the series launches its new season in April.

"Of course, he was fishing all the way up to the end -- he was such a
special guy," said Phil Segal, president of the production company that produces the Bering Sea crab fishing series for Discovery Channel. He said he's not sure yet how the story
of Harris' injury will unfold or if it will be included after editing.

"We're so concerned about the family and the
crew right now that we haven't stopped to think about how we're going
to deal with this," Segal said.

"We'll have to figure it out in the weeks and months
ahead."

A crew was filming at the time of Harris' stroke.

On the waterfront a few miles from Harris' Washington home, a makeshift shrine has gone up at the Seattle Fishermen's Memorial. Discovery Channel has assembled a collection of moments featuring the man who first worked on fishing boats when he was 7 and learned to drive his dad's Ford pickup when he was 10.

Motor Trend did a feature on Captain Phil last year while he was sidelined from "Deadliest Catch" by a pulmonary embolism. Harris told the magazine about getting into his first crab fishing gig at the urging of a high school friend who'd used his fishing money to buy a cool car:

On that first trip on the boat, he worked for two months without pay, just to prove himself. 'A guy got hurt on the boat and I took his place and I made $135,000 in a month. "I was 17 years old and when I came home, I bought a house, a Corvette, and two hookers. I was having a good time!"

Said Harris: "I like American and I'm a big Corvette fan, I've had seven of them in
my lifetime, I really enjoy these new ones, they're really, really a
super car." Check out a photo gallery featuring the captain and his sons Josh and Jake on the waterfront with, of course, that Victory Red 2008 Chevy Corvette Z06.